False Fjords

Artists

• Adam Sorensen

Statement

The Narrative of the Romantics had long been to capture and present the awe and strength of natural vistas. Landscape, which was often found on the fringes of human exploration, was imbued with mystery and danger, and was therefore stirring to the viewer. It seems as if humanity has conquered the once harrowing wild, and in turn made it strange. This is where my work sits, attached a century later to the romantic narrative. The abstract, the awkward, and the absurd have much more of a presence in contemporary life, and cannot be ignored when painting the landscape. Emphasizing the strangeness of modern nature, and embellishing it with contemporary aesthetic ideas, is in a way, a type of contemporary romanticism.

Rock, water, atmosphere. The way these three elements interact in space, became the foundation of these paintings. Any sort of reality that may be conveyed in these pictures, is due to the fundamental characteristics of these elements. How fog rises and clouds sink. How water sits calmly or falls violently. How valleys contain and at the same time wear away. By obeying these natural rules, and filling in the blanks with my own ideas, a more fantastic naturalism is created.